Enzymatic deposition of Au nanoparticles on the designed electrode surface and its application in glucose detection

This paper reported the enzymatic deposition of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) on the designed 3-mercapto-propionic acid/glucose oxidase/chitosan (MPA/GOD/Chit) modified glassy carbon electrode and its application in glucose detection. Chit served as GOD immobilization matrix and interacted with MPA through electrostatic attraction. AuNPs, without nano-seeds presented on the electrode surface, was produced through the glucose oxidase catalyzed oxidation of glucose. The mechanism of production of AuNPs was confirmed to be that enzymatic reaction products H2O2 in the solution reduce gold complex to AuNPs. The characterizations of the electrode modified after each assembly step was investigated by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy showed the average particle size of the AuNPs is 40 nm with a narrow particle size distribution. The content of AuNPs on the electrode surfaces was measured by differential pulse stripping voltammetry. The electrochemical signals on voltammogram showed a linear increase with the glucose concentration in the range of 0.010–0.12 mM with a detection limit of 4 μM. This provided a method to the determination of glucose.